The SaaS Growth Blog

By Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré & Trevor Hatfield

We’re in the midst of writing our SaaS Growth Playbook – a zero bullshit, actionable guide to growing SaaS businesses that are set up to scale from the start. It’s an ambitious undertaking, because so much has been written about this. Really great books like The Startup Owner’s Manual (currently highlighted and bookmarked past recognition on our desks), The Lean Startup and Lean Analytics, Value Proposition Design, and that whole “Jobs to be Done” thing? Is that a book yet? Because it seems like every founder we’ve spoken with in the last two months can’t stop talking about it.

The buyer’s journey has been around quite some time and comes in many forms. The purpose, however, remains the same. The buyer’s journey is the process buyers go through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new product or service. By mapping out this journey one can create clear messaging and content more specifically to the discovery stage that potential customers are searching within and ultimately drive and convert more qualified leads.

Regardless of what business you may be in, the increasingly crowded marketplace means that it’s more invaluable than ever before to find ways to distinguish your company from your competition. Thanks to modern technology, consumers are savvier than in the past and are prone to conducting detailed research regarding their purchase options.

Efficiency is a natural prerequisite for doing business. Otherwise, you run the risk of squandering your company’s precious resources, and your sales and marketing teams’ hard work may go to waste. And on top of all that, you run the risk of continuing methods of attracting customers that simply aren’t working. For a SaaS business in particular, that can be a death sentence. Having the right key performance indicators (KPIs) in place, however, can change everything for the better.

With the purchase of LinkedIn today for $26 Billion in cash, Microsoft makes its 196th acquisition. I wanted to take a look at what acquisitions were made in the past and thought it might be cool to see the background on how Microsoft got to where they are with an interactive timeline.

Starting a SaaS business involves many aspects and a large to-do list. However, one piece that is often overlooked, which also is the most important step in getting your marketing right, is proper messaging of the value of your product provides to your customers. This also is important in all aspects of the business from sales and product to support. This involves understanding your ideal customer and how to focus your messaging efforts.

Thus far, we’ve reviewed the Attract and Convert phases of the SaaS Marketing Journey, which center on developing uninitiated consumers into promising leads. Subsequent entries will detail the entire process that ultimately results in loyal customers who actively promote your business for you, but now we’ll delve into the next step in your customer development journey, the Experience stage.

With subscription-based models like Software as a Service (SaaS) increasingly becoming the industry standard, it’s more important than ever for companies to have a concrete knowledge of how to shape their marketing strategy into something scalable and tailor-made to meet customers’ specific needs. For years, SaaS marketing was largely defined by traditional inbound marketing methodologies (including a key infographic from HubSpot), but the continuing evolution of the industry has cultivated the need for a more robust approach.

Stickiness – you know it’s not just what your toddler leaves behind…well…everywhere. You even know that, at least when it comes to websites (and not your kitchen counter), it’s a good thing. Today, we’re going to talk about a different kind of sticky. This kind of sticky grabs hold, and you don’t want it to let go.

In building your SaaS (Software as a Service) business, you can’t overestimate just how essential it is to wring maximum impact out of your marketing budget. No matter how much money you have available to apply towards your product, the strategy behind its marketing is the key to your future success.